Athletics/National Track and Field Championships: It seems there's still no greater motivation in athletics than winning the national title. One major upset, two huge individual performances, and several unlikely winners conspired against the predicted air of inevitability to produce one of the best Irish championships at the Morton Stadium in years.

Chasing first national titles brought out the best in David Gillick and Joanne Cuddihy.

Those who felt Gillick was struggling a little this summer should have seen the way he tore up the track in the men's 400 metres - clocking a personal best 45.67 seconds.

He now has the full set of national medals having won bronze and silver in the past, but gold was all he was thinking about here.

Paul McKee, still the Irish record holder with 45.58, made sure he earned it, taking second in 45.96, yet the feeling now is Gillick will make that record his before the season is out.

"Paul really pushed me in the last 50 metres, and that made for a great race," said the 23-year-old European Indoor champion. "And that's what I needed. For my last few races I'd been thinking about times too much, but today I just came out to win."

Gillick's time also throws him into the mix for a medal at the European championships in Gothenburg in a fortnight's time, and followed the equally impressive 51.28 run by Cuddihy in the women's final. That left the Kilkenny athlete with a championship record and arguably the performance of the weekend - especially given this time last year she couldn't even walk after illness and then two knee operations.

"I suppose what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," said the 22-year-old medical student - who also smashed her old best of 51.63. "Thankfully I've had no setbacks at all this year, and that's made all the difference.

Cuddihy's unquestionable talent is only now being fully realised; she also collected the 200-metre title on Saturday in another personal best, 23.33.

It wouldn't be a memorable championship without one major upset, and that came in the men's 1,500 metres. Alistair Cragg was in town to sharpen his finishing speed ahead of the 5,000 metres in Gothenburg, and ended being given a lesson in finishing by the almost forgotten Liam Reale.

Cragg took the early pace, but once Reale blew past him down the final back stretch the race was over - and Reale won easily in 3:43.26 to Cragg's 3:44.98.

The 23-year-old from Limerick, who endured a difficult four years at Providence College in the US, now looks like a potential finalist in Gothenburg.

"I'm delighted with that, to say the least," said Reale. "I worked very hard on getting stronger over the winter, and that's paying off now. It's nice to beat an athlete like Cragg, which I suppose counts as a big scalp these days."

There were the expected winners on the day, not least the world indoor champion Derval O'Rourke, who collected a fifth 100-metre hurdles title in 13.24.

The slight headwind militated against a faster time - as did the lack of competition - but with races in Stockholm and Helsinki lined up tomorrow and Wednesday she's confident of improving her best of 12.92 before hitting Gothenburg.

Back to the tales of the unexpected, starting with Róisín McGettigan, who on Saturday evening at the Heusden meeting in Belgium lowered her Irish 3,000 metres steeplechase record by a massive 13 seconds, clocking 9:32.04. She needed to race in Santry in order to ensure selection for Gothenburg, but with no steeplechase on the programme, she decided on the 800 metres - which she duly won in impressive style in 2:08.10.

The men's 5,000 metres was flagged as a battle between the defending champion, Martin Fagan of Mullingar, and Donegal's Gary Murray, until James Nolan showed up at the start. He'd run 3:37.89 in Heusden the evening before and felt inspired to run his first 5,000 metres on the track - but after 10 of the 12-and-a-half laps he was finally dropped by Fagan and Murray.

That still left an intensely tight finish, with Murray edging out Fagan by 11-hundredths of a second, clocking 14:14.21.

Another classic sprint finish developed in the men's 800 metres, with Thomas Chamney of Clonmel taking his first title after gunning down David Campbell of Maynooth in the last 50 metres, winning in 1:48.71.